General Education
1970 B.C. Teaching Certificate…..University of British Columbia
1961-63 Graduate studies (French literature)…..Stanford University
1960-61 Graduate studies…..University of British Columbia
1960 Diplôme des études françaises…..Université de Grenoble
1959 Bachelor of Arts (French/Russian)…..University of British Columbia
Advanced Musical Training
1987-88 Musicology University of Victoria
1978-79 Composition Banff Centre
1973-75 Composition Shawnigan Lake Summer School of the Arts
1973-77 Composition Private studies with Jean Coulthard
Affiliations
2021- Founder of Program, Compositrices canadiennes à Radio Victoria.
2017- Victoria composers’ Collective, membership.
2014- 2021 BCRMTA Canada Music Week Chair
2005- BCRMTA Teacher of Composition membership
1996- Canadian League of Composers
1993- Canadian Music Centre: Voting member
1990- Canadian Music Centre: Associate Composer
Employment History
1993-98 Instructor, French diction. Camosun Program, Victoria Conservatory of Music,Victoria, B.C.
1975-2000 President, Eagle Valley Stables, Ltd., Victoria, B.C.
1987-1999 Founder and administrator, University of Victoria Murray Adaskin Scholarship Concerts, Victoria. B.C.
1984-86 Coordinator of Music Programs. Christ Church Cathedral Completion Fund, Victoria, B.C.
1974-80 President, Capital City Tally Ho Sightseeing Company, Ltd., Victoria, B.C.
1971-73 Instructor of French extra curricular music, North Surrey Senior Secondary school, Surrey, B.C.
1961-62 Writer/researcher. Vancouver Daily Province, Vancouver, B.C.
1961 Staff writer, Bend Bulletin. Oregon
Related Experience
April 14, 2024, adjudicator of composition, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
April 7, 2019, adjudicator of composition, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
2014 Adjudicator, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
2011 Adjudicator, Composition, Canada Music Week for the BCRMTA.
2009 March 29, Adjudicator,composition, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
2007 Adjudicator, composition, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
2003 Adjudicator. composition, B.C. Registered Music Teachers’ Association
2002 Jury member. B.C. Arts Council Commissioning Grants for Composer
2002 Adjudicator, composition, Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival
2000 Adjudicator, composition, Okanagan Composers’ Festival
1999 Composer in Residence, Oberlin in Casalmaggiore, Italy
1997 Jury member, composition, Canada Council for the Arts
1996 Adjudicator, composition, B.C. Registered Music Teachers’ Association Composition Competition
1996 Adjudicator, composition, Victoria Music Festival
1995 Adjudicator, composition, B.C. Registered Music Teachers’ Association Composition Competition
1992-97 Music Committee, Open Space Gallery, Victoria, B.C.
1989-1995 Board of Directors, Women in Music, Vancouver, B.C.
1986-96 Board of Directors, Okanagan Composers’ Festival
1976-78 Adjudicator, composition, Okanagan Composers’ Festival
Publications
LITTLE LATIN SUITE, 2015, for cello and piano, by Linda Schwartz, Palliser Music
NAGAREBOSHI, October, 2014, for solo piano. published by The Avondale Press, Vancouver.
2009, RARESCALE, for flute and harp, alto flute and harp, flute and piano, and alto flute and piano, published by The Avondale Press, Vancouver
2008, RARESCALE, for flute(s) and piano, and for flute(s) and harp, published by The Avondale Press, Vancouver, B.C.
SUMMERTIME: Five Cello Pieces for Children (Alberta Keys, 2002)
CELLO MUSIC FOR CHILDREN (in: Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects, 2001)
SONGS OF THE LOON (published by The Avondale Press, 1999)
ILE DE RÉ (published by The Avondale Press, 1998)
FOUR INDIAN SONGS (Waterloo Music, 1989)
L’ARC-EN-CIEL FOR HARP (New West Coast Composers, West Coast Review, 1986)
A LA JEUNESSE (French edition, Waterloo Music, 1984)
FIVE PIANO PIECES (In: A Student’s Guide to Musical Form, Waterloo Music, 1981)
MUSIC OF OUR TIME (French edition, Waterloo Music. 1978)
Discography
CD release, Tuesday, June 13, 2017; CELEBRATING CANADIAN WOMEN. Laurel Swinden, flute; Stephanie Mara, flute.
Works by composers Rachel Laurin, Jean Coulthard, Sylvia Rickard, with RARESCALE, Heather Schmidt, Laura Pettigrew,
Emily Doolittle, and Alice Ping Yee Ho.
CLARION CALLS, for bass clarinet solo and stringed orchestra; on cd 7 NEW WORKS.
Gordon Clements, bass clarinet soloist; Timothy Vernon, conductor of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra strings
RARESCALE, for alto flute and piano, on cd NEW MUSIC NORTH: First Recording, 2008
NAGAREBOSHI, for solo piano, on cd A CELEBRATION OF CANADIAN MUSIC, 2008
O HOLY NIGHT, arranged for harp and marimba by Sylvia Rickard and performed by Josh and Robin Layne (on ‘Christmas Time” CD 2001)
SONGS OF THE LOON, for clarinet and ‘cello, on cd COASTAL WAVES, 1998
Prizes & Awards
2012 ESTIVAL won first place in the Canadian section of the Piano Performance, Intermediate level, of the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival. Pianist, Carmyn Slater.
1999 Resident Composer, Oberlin international Festival, Casalmaggiore, Lombardy, Italy
1978 Scholarship, Banff Centre Composers’ Workshop
1977 Okanagan Composers’ Festival, Honourable Mention, Ile de Ré
1975 Okanagan Composers’ Festival, First Place (shared), SONATA FOR OBOE AND ORGAN)
1974 Okanagan Composers’ Festival, First Place (shared), open class ESTIVAL (a.k.a. BALLET SONATINA)
Commissions
2011 CLARION CALLS for bass clarinet and string orchestra. Commissioner: Gordon Clements. Premiere: October 23, 2011, on concert 7 NEW WORKS, Gordon Clements, bass clarinet; 13 strings of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Timothy Vernon. Alix Goolden Hall.
2010 BRISE MARINE, (poem, E Stéphane Mallarmé) for soprano, oboe and piano. Duration: 6 minutes. Commissioned by Graeme Wilkinson, for the Graduate Studies programme, Concordia University, Montréal.
2007 Rebecca Danard has commissioned 15 Canadian composers to write a short piece for solo clarinet, for her DMA degree in Cincinnatti, Ohio. Rickard will base her piece on 2 extended techniques; single note trills and pitch bending. Ms. Danard intends to publish these 15 pieces as a collection of teaching pieces, and possibly, to record these pieces for students, and to present them in concert form. All composers must complete the compositions by September, 2008. Each piece features one or two extended techniques for B Flat clarinet.
2005 New Music North: TUNING TO SPIRIT
2002 Roger Honeywell: THREE RILKE SONGS
2002 Barbara Ebbeson: THREE CABARET SONGS
2000 Catherine Lewis/Christine Prince: LULLABY
2000 Canadian Music Centre, B.C. Millennium Project: BUTTERCUP FIELDS
1999 Taras GaboralGaelyne Gabora: THE BELLS OF CASALMAGGIORE
1998 Christopher Ross-Ewart: MY GROUCHY CAT
1995 Christoph Both: SONGS OF THE LOON
1995 Nonalee Dong: LOVE FLOWERS OF CHINESE COURTESANS
1993 Patricia Kostek: WITH EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE…
1990 Wolfgang Brunnwieser: KUER FÜR WOLFGANG
1986 Victoria International Festival of Music: THE FIVE ELEMENTS
1975 CBC: Music for a play by Otto Lowy about Franz Kafka
1975 CBC Radio: A BREAST FOR BEATING IN MY HOUR OF NEED, from max Brod’s biography of Kafka
Personal Appearances, Broadcasts, Published Articles
July 12, 2023 – Razvan Bezna, doctoral student of Classical Guitar at McGill University, Montreal gave a live TV interview: Salut Romanesc din Montréal with Johnny Ciatlos-Deak, covering Classical Guitar pieces of Canadian Women Composers, for his doctoral thesis. Bezna discussed Sylvia Rickard’s Leprechaun Suite for Solo Guitar, MacCaws Calling and Answering The Call.
February 2021 interview with Dr. Patricia Morehead, on the ACWC website: https://www.facebook.com/ACWCAFCC, my article Life in Music with Jean Coulthard.
2010 Oct. 26, Christian Tatonetti interviews Sylvia Rickard on his programme on CILS Francophone station ,Victoria, BON MATIN, Subject: recent 3 concerts involving BELLE-MERE, Jean Coulthard and Claude Treil.
2009 March 18, Radio Canada, Vancouver: interview with Yolaine Mottet on programme Le Pont des Arts, 97.7 fm
2008 August 11, CBC Radio , “On the Island”; producer, Peter Hutchinson.
NAGAREBOSHI, First movement;Toshiko Tampo, piano (from cd:A Celebration of Canadian Composers).
2005 CBC Radio 1, Thunder Bay, Ontario: Interview on “Voyage North” by producer/announcer Gerald Graham re New Music North Festival
2004 Société Radio Canada, Vancouver: Interview on “Bon Jour” (producer, Denis Bouchard) by announcer Denis Couture re Sonic Boom Festival and “ANSWERING THE CALL”
2003 CBC/Radio Canada: Partial performance of “SONGS OF THE LOON” (2001) on “Take Five,” Shelley Soames, host
2000 Life Fellow, International Biographical Society, Cambridge, England
2000 SOCAN Words and Music Magazine: Feature article: Concert of works, by Rick Macmillan
2000 Selected by International Biographical Society as one of 2,000 most outstanding musicians of the 20th century
1999 Casalmaggiore Newspaper: Article on Oberlin Conservatory in Casalmaggiore
1998 Lecturer with William Bruneau and David Gordon Duke, “Jean Coulthard as Mentor,” University of Victoria Women of Notes series; Subject of lecture on chamber works by Dr. Jean Sloop, voice faculty, Kansas State University
1997 Subject of lecture by David Gordon Duke, Santa Rosa Community College, Santa Rosa, California
1996 University of Victoria Radio (CFUV) on International Women’s Day: Interview and extract from opera
1995 University of Victoria Music School Graduate Colloquium guest lecture: “A Composer’s Choices”
1993 Radio Canada “Vents d’ouest,” Sylvia L’Ecuyer: Interview on Jean Coulthard
1992 University Of Victoria Radio (CFUV), “The Classical Show,” Suzanne Edmondson:Interview on International Women’s Day
1991 Guest lecturer, University of Victoria Music Department, on women and music; interview by Brian Jull on CFUV’s Noon Hour Magazine; interview on BCTV’s Ida Clarkson Show
1989 Guest on Radio Canada’s “Horizon,” Sylvia L’Ecuyer, producer; guest on CFRO (Co-op radio, Vancouver), “Women of Note,” Ina Dennekamp, producer
1988 Subject of conversation on Public Radio station KWMU, St. Louis, Missouri, by Taras and Gaelyne Gabora re CASA string faculty recital
1982 Profile article by David G. Duke in Music magazine, Toronto
1978 Guest panelist on the creative arts, Banff Centre
1972 Guest on CBUF-FM, Vancouver, Simon Boivin, producer
